I remember when I played it.. I knew it was going to be a good game, but I never imagined it would become one of my favs of all time. 180 hours of playind and still can do somethings in it.

Enjoy it!

Also starting to play the game but I'm still at colony 9 and finishing several side quests.

I just finished the game a few months ago. I LOVED IT. This was my first real RPG and it took me quite a while to get the hang of it. There are a few things I wish I had done differently. First of all, for most of the game I used Shulk as the party leader, with Reyn and Sharla in the party. Although you could probably complete the whole game like this, you miss out on all the "one liners" the other characters say that are pretty funny and often revealing. This also helps to not get bored with the same lines being said over and over. Secondly, I did not put any effort into building affinity between characters until late in the game, and this caused me to miss many of the "Heart-to-Heart" moments. Last, I learned too late in the game that you do not need Shulk for every boss battle. In a few cases (for me) sticking with Shulk, Reyn, and Dunban caused me to get destroyed again and again. Switching to an all girl team once allowed me to defeat the boss, or other high level monster, quickly and relatively easily. Even when my team is saying stuff like "I guess we have no choice", or "Are you trying to get us killed?" because the monster level was higher than the party members, I could still often take them down with the right choice of characters.
I am sure this is stating the obvious for most people, but I thought I would put in my two cents of advice anyhow.

This game is brilliant so far. I am now about 20 hours in and it reminds me of Xenogears so much. That high entia cathedral place reminds me of solaris so much! If u havent played Xenogears do so soon, pretty sure it's on PSN. This game, along with Ni No Kuni, renewed my spark and faith in the JRPG genre. It is truly a treat. Usually I get a game and beat it as soon as I can but with this, I feel that I need to enjoy it over time, it's like a REALLY good dessert. I hope u enjoy it as much as I am.

for ppl who said "the plot is great " in the first 20 hours..
last 15 hours of the game will blow your mind :)
this is a masterpiece.

Xenoblade is so amazing, easily in my top 5 ever. The world just absorbs you, it's so immersive and beautiful and I loved the plot, the battle system, the characters, the soundtrack, everything.

Man, I wish I could play this game for the first time again. Although I think I've been enjoying it more and more as time passes. Xenoblade is a fine wine.

THIS.

Also, take a look at the skill trees and how the affinity chart works. one of the few flaws of the game is that the tutorials for those things are too cramped together and it's overwhelming. Because of that, the first time I played I ignored those things for a while. Don't do that.

I'm having the same mindest as you. Like you, last rpg i played was final fantasy 13, and ugh...I've actually gotten more into classic rpgs like xenogears (favorite all time) and golden sun on wii-u. Xenoblade is a very fresh rpg to me, and there's nothing at the moment i don't like about it. 

That's literally my only complaint with the game so far. I truly didn't bother digesting that information because it was so rapid fire, and I wanted to move on. Plus I learn through experience anyways. 

Thankfully, I think I have the hang of things now.